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I just got home from Best Buy and looked at both models. The Samsung looked better. Less blurry/grainy during fast movements (i.e. sports). Both pictures looked excellent, bright colors, excellent inputs, etc. But I'm going to buy the Samsung.

For a few bucks more you can but a 1080 t.v. 16x9 screen I can only tell you that witch my 65" sony 1080 set and I watch an over hi-def program and when they switch to ads they are usually in 480 or 720 and its like night and day between 72o and 1080 I didnt even think they made 720 sets anymore good luck stewart norrie in this chat room

I agree that the standard will eventually swing totally in favor for HD ... BUT, for the time being and for the money, ED is a very viable alternative and it's not going away anytime soon. I've read that by 2009 all signals (HD) will be in 1080 - not really buying that talk, but you never know ...

And since most brands HD's are marginally better than analog, ED will still have its place. And let's not forget the up/down convert (depending on which one you have ED or HD) to 480p - which happens to be native for DVD.

they made luxerious cars for a very little price tag. cars would break after a few years and it was costing them too much money to fix so they went out of business.

another words, i'd rather get a plasma like the EDTV panaonic which i KNOW has a good reputation...then to buy a plasma from maxent...a company with no reputation. especially when the panasonic ed looks better then the maxent HD on the same signal...i'll go with the edtv regardless of the specs (resolution). do you buy cars by the specs? or the way it drives?

ps: i coulda sworn you posted about how all rearprojection tv's (especially dlp's) are bad cause you feel that you're limited to only a certain size and the picture is always in a box...and i'm pretty sure you ripped on their lightbulbs too. yet you still got a brand new dlp rear projection. what happened to the front projector? it'll give you 20+ more inches and its the same price. why go with the smaller rear dlp? this is the same concept. high number specs dont always mean better.

My buddy and I had the same argument. On paper, the Sammy should murder the Panny, due to better contrast ratio, and a higher video-processor, but here's the reality: We stacked the Panny ED and the Sammy ED side by side, hooked up identical DVD players with identical cables and stuck Starwars III in at the same time to compare. The Panasonic slaughtered the Samsung, despite not matching up to it in specs. The black levels were superior, the clarity was superior, and the colour was supreme. The Sammy is a nice "Bang for your buck"model, but it just couldn't compare with the Panny's levels.

For those of you boys already burying ED, consider this. Only about 30-40 channels on cable or satellite are HD as of yet. Those of the "suckers" who have bought ED are going to get a superior picture from the non-highdef channels in comparison to those of you "masters" with HD plasmas. :D:D The ED models don't have to scale the SDTV picture up as high, and so the effect is much less grainy than on an HDTV, which scales enormously, particularly if you have it set to 720p all the time, which is the best viewing for the HD channels.

Stick the Pany 50PX500U and the TH-42PX50U model side by side with HD playing on both, and I dare you to find a huge difference. The only noticeable difference is in black levels, and even that is minimal.

Those of you who chose HD plasmas are most likely going to have to pay the same amount for an ATSC tuner box as those who purchased ED plasmas, when everything goes completely HD in 2009. Very few HD plasma models come with the ATSC tuner, unless you're buying a higher model Panny or Sammy. So nyah. :D:D:D